Got a Raspberry PI 3

Well, I got the Pi Zero W today.  It's so tiny and cute!  LOL.  And I thought the Pi 3 B+ was small.  This thing is barely half the size.    

I'm going to "play" with it this weekend.  :)  :)  :)  

These things are darn near addictive.  The other day I had to take my cat to the vet and I felt terrible.  Instead of getting the sleep I should have gotten the night before I was up playing video games.  :p 

I keep thinking about, one of these day, learning how to program with Python.  I guess that's the go to programming thing with these.  I don't know of what advantage learning to program with Python would be, but it might just be fun to learn how to do so.  

I've not messed much with Python, but it's much like Perl and PHP in that they all have a C-like syntax to them (aside from all starting with 'P'). Python is probably more disciplined than the others, due to how it can use specifically installed libraries/packages to expand how it's used.

Personally, I prefer doing quick and dirty scripting in PHP. It, like Java, can be confusing if the correct base version isn't used you end up with a lot of depricated stuff that used to work well, but no longer does. I've done things in Python and Perl, but mostly modifying things that already existed.

I have written several PHP scripts for years. Years ago I wrote a script that interfaced with the VOA's frequency database in Oracle for a portable frequency management system I was writing in Borland Delphi (Pascal-based). Also have something that displays whether posts were correctly scheduled in WordPress (it's actually a very small WP plug-in). Also have a script that takes the web site's RSS feed, embeds the titles of the last ten articles on an image (like a magazine cover), and then Tweets it to the website account - cron'd to occur three times a day. I even use a PHP script that runs as part of an Excel macro (via a shell) to generate a weekly Injury League table that gets posted.

So you can see it's pretty versatile. Not sure why I turned this into a sales pitch for PHP, but there you are.

Well, for the Pi Zero W I set up Raspbian from NOOBS on the microSD card it came with and used the microSD that came with my original Pi 3 B+ to install RetroPie.

When setting up Raspbian on the Pi Zero W I immediately noticed how much slower it is than the 3 B+, and when it finished installing it took a lot longer to personalize it.  It's funny, but even moving the mouse pointer causes the CPU usage to jump up into the 30% range.  But, it's a $10 computer, so what can you expect?  LOL.  

As for RetroPie, it set up just fine and I was able install the Roms I wanted more easily than I did with the 3 B+, as I did transferred them via WiFi this time.  So much easier.  I didn't actually play any of the games yet, but I did start Final Fantasy III, and I noticed right off the bat that the resolution was automatically lowered.  I guess RetroPie is recognizing how much "weaker" the Zero is and adjusted the resolution so the games would still be playable.  Again, I haven't actually tried playing them.  I'll try a couple over the weekend.  And I've got to get a different mini HDMI to HMDI adpater, as the one that came with the kit is "touchy".  It would be fine if the thing never moves, but if there is any movement at all, like even the cat walking by and brushing up against the HDMI cable, it might twitch out.  I've already chosen the new adapter I'm getting, but I'm waiting until Prime day as there is a two pack of cheap SNES type controllers I'm going to get, too, as having to re-pair the Bluetooth controller each time I switch to the other Pi is going to be a pain and I don't really feel like buying another Bluetooth controller (unless it has a REALLY good price on Prime day).   

So, the Pi Zero W is definitely slower than the Pi 3 B+, which I already knew would be the case, but it's very noticeably slower.  But, again, for $10, what can you expect?  It's still pretty darn neat.  :)